Runners
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Currently the South Downs Way 100 mile race is being run. I marshalled it yesterday. First was at registration from 03:45 to 06:00 attaching the gps trackers to runners’ packs, then drove 22 miles to the first nutrition station to set up and support the runners. Doing this gets me a spot on next year’s event. It’s been hot in this part of the world. 20% of registered runners didn’t show up, twice as many as usual. Out of 339 starters, 192 have either finished or are still running. The cut off is 30 hours and if runners are slower than that pace at check points they get dq’d. it was quite hot yesterday lots of runners were already struggling from the heat at 10:00 and 22 miles in. Saw all ages and types of people running. Pretty inspiring. Looking forward to next year.
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@AdamJ work your way up to a 10k and then treat yourself to those trainers you've been eying up!
I found it crazy how fast my body adapted when I first started. Struggled through the couch to 5k programme, hated every minute, but five months later ran my first half marathon.
These scene from one of my favourite shows always kept me motivated;
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@T4920 I've got a couple of pairs of Vaporflys which I love. The Hokas would be a pure indulgent purchase, not saying that's not a valid reason!
Yeah I remember doing my first 5 in lockdown and thinking it was impossible to even get close to a 10, lo and behold, did it a few weeks after. Consistency is what I find hardest to maintain!
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I applied for the London marathon next year but was unsuccessful, so instead I have signed up to do the Brighton marathon. I’m no runner but want to give myself plenty of time to train. Can any of you guys recommend an online training program?
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@bryaneidins70 You can try out Nike Run Club's training program. I enjoyed using it when I first got into running. It also has guided runs that help out for the days you run alone.
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@bryaneidins70 so I’m not addressing the running program per se and I’m nowhere near the long distance runner as others on this forum @Nik cough but do love something about the mental torture to any endurance training/work out. Like anything, proper technique goes a long way. I got a lot from the following video in regards to running form which helped shave down my mile time and even more importantly, helped with some nagging injuries:
Side note, tunes are great and but for me, nothing beats getting lost in an audiobook to help advert the mind from the grind. -
@bryaneidins70 nice one, I did my first marathon this year at Brighton. Was an amazing experience and one I hope to repeat in the near future.
I can’t recommend any specific plan as the one I followed led to injury. If I were training again, however, I would be careful about increasing mileage (weekly increase limited to 20%), and I’d start earlier. Also, avoid skipping the midweek “junk miles” which is easier said than done when you’re juggling kids/work etc.
I also found rewarding myself at milestones in the training a good way to keep motivated. New shoes/clothes always helps
.Also when you say you’re no runner, have you ever done a half/10k or are you brand new? I found training for a half marathon pre-xmas meant that I was used to a solid weekly mileage, and the increase needed for the marathon didn’t come as too much of a shock.
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Lots of great advice here. Have fun! I'd add that joining a local club to participate in group workouts and paying for coaching is worth it.
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@goosehd they are as important. Typically junk miles are the ones outside of your workouts/long runs. The miles just to get the time in feet.
For the Marathon training. Start slow and increase mileage maybe by 10%/week with a down week every three or four weeks (depending on how well your body handles the impact) to give the body time to recover and adapt.
Most of the training should be around zone 2 (conversational pace, which can be very slow and frustrating) , then one or two workouts, read speedier runs/threshold pace and interval pace and lastly the holy church of the longrun. -
@goosehd junk miles is probably an unhelpful term as I've seen the phrase used with different meanings - but for me, it's those in between runs that aren't really at a pre-set intensity, and maybe when you feel suboptimal. When you look at the training plan, it's easy to see the long runs and faster runs as the "important ones" that you must adhere to, and easy to make excuses for the runs in between. It's these ones that I mean when I say "junk miles".
My training plan gave me some of these on days following a long run. You feel like shit since your body is tired from yesterday, and it's easy to convince yourself not to bother - "I did 16 miles yesterday, I'm not doing another 5 today". I came to think of these as "junk miles" - they're crappy and miserable, but you just get em down and then forget about them.
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@Dmart @jerkules Thank you for the explanation gentlemen! I don't have enough miles in my belt to consider miles good or bad and value all of them pretty much the same.
I am constantly changing exercise regimes to keep myself under stress. Running, rowing, weightlifting and different combos of those exercises to keep the body in a state of flux and listening/feeling to how I respond. My training would change if my goal was specific (half marathon, 10km race, etc.) but I generally train for overall conditioning. I've been pretty lucky in that I'm injury free (most of the time) with this approach to exercise and will be 51 in less than a month.
I enjoy these discussions as I do learn quite a bit from them and they do help me tailor my approaches to different aspects of my conditioning. HIIT training, zone training, and adding mileage being some of them. As previously mentioned, I'm adding mileage to my runs with my goal of being able to run 10km consistently under 60 minutes. My 5km times are sub 30 and my splits are on track to meet that goal.
Thank you once again and appreciate all of your insights.
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@bryaneidins70 nice one, I did my first marathon this year at Brighton. Was an amazing experience and one I hope to repeat in the near future.
I can’t recommend any specific plan as the one I followed led to injury. If I were training again, however, I would be careful about increasing mileage (weekly increase limited to 20%), and I’d start earlier. Also, avoid skipping the midweek “junk miles” which is easier said than done when you’re juggling kids/work etc.
I also found rewarding myself at milestones in the training a good way to keep motivated. New shoes/clothes always helps.Also when you say you’re no runner, have you ever done a half/10k or are you brand new? I found training for a half marathon pre-xmas meant that I was used to a solid weekly mileage, and the increase needed for the marathon didn’t come as too much of a shock.
I have done running in the past....couch to 5k, some 15k spartan events but not a consistent runner. With the junk miles..can these be substituted with bike rides? i was reading a bit yesterday about cross training and didn't know if the junk miles fall into the cross part.
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All workouts in a training plan are important but the long workout and interval sessions are most important so it’s possible to alter the easy runs to cross training but running is the best workout to prepare for running, unless that’s going to cause you injury. Strength training also helps a lot with that.
